Chapter 32: Road Rage

The shootout had resumed. The motorcycle had become a target from all sides, though this time they had the shield to protect them temporarily. Or so the boy had thought at first.

The first of the arrows fired straight at him, colliding precisely with the center of the barrier’s back, and though it did not quite pierce through it, it had opened up a long crack right along its translucent surface, running from top to bottom.

“Hey, I thought this thing would be more resistant!”

“Even against other objects, the liquid spear has a very high damage stat. If they keep firing that against us, the shield won’t last very long…” replied the girl, who still tried and failed to hit the cars on each side of them with fireballs, but with still no success.

Haruto squinted his eyes. The two cars on the front were enveloped in ‘snapshields’, and every once in a while, there would be a wide lightning bolt, or a large piece of rock flying at them, as the thugs poured every last bit of strength into their skills. Weak or not, all those abilities combined would bring about his and Suzuka’s end if they didn’t do something now.

“Alright, we’re getting nowhere like this!” he decided, frustrated. “Let’s switch some things up.”

“Wha-!?”

Leaning further into her back, his weight pushed her slightly forward, making her lose her balance for a moment as his face was almost completely shoved against her blazer due to the lack of space, and reaching with his arms as far as he could, he knocked her hands off each of the handlebars, grabbing them himself instead.

“I drive, you shoot!” he said. “Now, I want those things out of our way before I pop a goddamn nerve, so stop nagging and start throwing!!”

Unbeknownst to him, though, thrusting his hands forward like that had brought each of his arms a bit too close to the girl’s chest for comfort, rubbing slightly against it each time the bike jerked from one side or another.

“Wh-Where do you think you’re touching!? Pervert!!” she shouted, waving her arms around in a panic, at a loss for what to do from there.

“I don’t know!!” he shouted back, even louder. “I’m not sure if you’ve noticed, but I can’t see shit from back here!!!”

The bike jerked again, as Haruto barely managed to keep his hands on the handles, nearly throwing them both out.

“... S… Stop touching weird places…!”

“Suzuka! Priorities!!!” he yelled again, frustrated beyond himself. “How do I control this thing?? What do I do!?”

“Alright… Alright…” she complied, heaving a long sigh. “The gas is on the right handle, it’s already as far as it can go, so don’t move it. Same goes for the levers above the handles. If you even so much as tap the brake or the clutch we’ll be flying off the bike in the blink of an eye.”

“Got it. So I just got to keep it still, right?”

She nodded.

“So, do your thing, then!!”

He didn’t have to ask her again. With her focus now solely placed on the two regular cars, she charged up two blinding clusters of crackling flames from her palms, flinging them to one side and the other, then immediately started cooking up the next batch before their opponents could even prepare themselves. Now that she didn’t have the bike’s balancing to worry about anymore, she could focus solely on her aim, ensuring one straight hit after the other.

She blew past the shield on the right with three hits, and with the fourth one she was finally able to blow it up, neutralizing the enemies inside it. Suzuka had then turned her full attention to the final regular on their left, while Haruto tried how he could to avoid receiving any more damage from both it and the heavy vehicle behind them, which hadn’t wasted any time moving further forward, trying to take the place of its late allies. The occasional bullets would still hit, nevertheless. Although his wild veering had allowed him to at least keep the shielding barrier from completely breaking, if only for the time being, with the two groups of enemies closing in on them it had become tricky to move around as much as he had before.

Noticing the strong glint of gold in the corner of her eye, Suzuka had suddenly turned her attention away from her target on the left, shouting to her master instead.

“Move, quick. That thing can tear through the shield with a single hit!”

Haruto quickly caught up to her, locking eyes with the gauntlet guy once again. The first of his arrows had missed the motorcycle’s shielding, but he’d finished charging up his second one, and was aiming straight at them once again. The boy jerked violently to the right, nearly knocking Suzuka off-balance, as he gave it his all to swerve away from the thug’s sight. But to no avail. The liquid spear fired off with a lingering screech, the glowing arrow piercing swiftly through the air without anything to stop it in its path, until eventually it reached the translucent, nearly bubble-like surface surrounding the two of them, stabbing right through it, though not quite moving past it. That was as far as the spear could fly, as it seemed. But it had been enough.

The mere impact of the object against the barrier’s outer layer had been enough to spread through it a long stretch of cracks, whose shape had soon increased to form holes all over its surface. Not an instant later, the motorcycle’s shield-bubble had shattered into a rain of intangible cracks all around the two of them, along with the arrow itself, which also broke and lost its form soon after.

“Not now!” spat the boy, looking back at the empty gauntlet, still pointed towards him nevertheless.

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“This isn’t good.” said Suzuka, dread spreading with each word. “Even if applied on objects or shields, that arrow can still inflict an absurd amount of damage. We were too careless.”

The boy frowned. They were completely open to the mob’s attacks, now. If it’d been the girl maneuvering the bike, she might’ve still been able to avoid the gauntlet in some way, but he wasn’t nearly as skilled with that thing. Hell, he could barely keep the two of them upright.

He wasn’t sure what they could even do now. The car on the left was one thing, but it wasn’t like they could just break through the tank’s armor with just a few hits.

(Well… Whatever we do, we’ll have to do it fast.)

The tank was now running steady to their right, and the shots were starting to go off again. He looked at the girl's hands for a brief moment. The flames were visibly waning, though one wouldn’t quite notice at first glance. She couldn’t take both of those, not even in dreams.

(She’s almost at her limit.)

“Suzuka… How long does Fireblast take to recharge?”

“Two minutes and a half.” she muttered. “You noticed… Didn’t you, master?”

“I see… Listen. Focus all your attention on the left. I’ll try to avoid the tank.”

She seemed to look at him dubiously for a moment, but soon ended up complying.

Suzuka aimed for the car in the left, and concentrating enough firepower to eliminate it along with its shielding in one blow, she made short work of the vehicle while Haruto kept on clumsily swerving the bike around like a madman, barely avoiding the majority of the gunshots coming their way by either violently accelerating or suddenly letting go of it.

As the flimsy vehicle’s flaming husk inevitably vanished in the distance, leaving at odds only the motorcycle and the last of the seeking cars, Haruto turned back to glance at the girl’s hands once again. The flame was almost gone on both. But there were still a few solid flickers here and there. Enough to throw out at least two or three more fireballs.

He took a deep breath, and gave her the next order.

“Take control of the motorcycle, now!!”

She brought her hands forward again as quickly as she could, taking over his own as he was finally able to pull back from that inconvenient position and take a better look at their last group of opponents. They were still shooting, but hopefully, he would only need to keep them at bay for a few moments.

He opened the inventory and materialized the rusty pistol once again. He wasn’t sure how many bullets it had left, or how it even worked, but he figured it shouldn’t matter. As long as he maintained a solid grip with both hands over it and aimed carefully, he could hopefully make good use of them. If not to hit them, at the very least to keep those thugs at bay.

The first few shots from their own side startled Suzuka at first, prompting her to glance briefly at him, but it wasn’t long before she’d gotten used to the noise coming from so close. As for him, each time a new arrow flew about, barely missing the side of his head or torso, the boy could feel his heart skip a beat.

He wasn’t managing to hit anything. Honestly, just keeping that thing still in his hands while clumsily leaning onto the girl’s back, fighting how he could not to fall off, already felt like a grand accomplishment by itself. The bullets would either miss the vehicle entirely and fly off into the distance, or bounce loudly off the bulk of its body without leaving a scratch. The buffoons were riding the thing with the windows wide open, just firing blindly back at him as well, and yet he couldn’t get a single one of his shots to land on one of them, or inside the car. He gritted his teeth in frustration.

“Suzuka, think you can still shoot and drive at the same time?”

“Y-Yeah… But I barely have anything left. I can’t blow that whole thing away with just… well, this left. Even if I somehow, miraculously figured out how to set it on fire from the inside, the flames would still take too long to spread. They would get us.”

“I know… But if, say, you were to combine all you have left into a really strong blast… If it hit the car from just the right angle, is there any way you could blow at least one or two of those doors off the hinges?”

“It’s certainly possible, but… Master, what are you thinking…?” she uttered, astonishment slowly washing over her as she thought their situation over, wary of where that conversation was going.

“I’m thinking this situation might require a more… hands-on approach, as it were.”

“A-Are you crazy!? You’re going to die! Like, right away!! You don’t have a chance!”

“Of course I don’t…” he sighed. “I never do. Now, get those fireballs ready, matchsticks. The world tour’s just gettin’ started.”

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